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UPDATE 1/11: Woman Held in Niece's Death Found Dead

A Fairfax County woman who was arrested Monday and charged with murder died Tuesday, possibly from heart failure, after she was found unresponsive in her jail cell, Fairfax authorities said yesterday.

Martha Majors, 56, of the Alexandria area of Fairfax was charged with fatally stabbing her niece, Laquetta S. Sanders, in their apartment on Edsall Road on Dec. 11. Majors also stabbed herself repeatedly, officers said, and was hospitalized until Monday, when she was released and arrested.

Court records indicate that Majors was arraigned Tuesday morning in the Fairfax courthouse. At 2:35 p.m., she was discovered in her cell, taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital and pronounced dead. Lt. Mylene Whorton of the sheriff's office said an autopsy indicated possible heart failure, but further tests were needed. Her death did not appear related to her stab wounds, Whorton said.

-- Tom Jackman

From today's Metro section:

An Alexandria area woman was arrested yesterday after her release from Inova Fairfax Hospital and charged with murder in the stabbing death of her niece last month, Fairfax County police said.

On Dec. 11, police found Laquetta Shawrie Sanders, 22, on the floor of an apartment on Edsall Road. Her aunt, Martha Majors, 56, was on top of Sanders, "stabbing herself," according to a search-warrant affidavit.

Sanders was dead at the scene, and Majors was flown to Inova Fairfax. She was being held last night in the Fairfax jail without bond.